Government response suggests ‘Pharmacy First’ policy in England is under development Exclusive: The Department of Health and Social Care refuses to share information on discussions around a potential service as it “relates to the formulation or development of government policy”.…
Minor ailment scheme extension could save NHS up to £640m annually, says PSNC The Pharmaceutical Services Negotiating Committee suggested that savings could be made by transferring 40 million GP appointments to pharmacies via the 'Community pharmacy consultation service'.…
Boots shuts nearly all 200 pharmacies earmarked for closure Exclusive: Walgreens Boots Alliance, the parent company of Boots, has confirmed that almost all of the 200 "loss making" pharmacies have closed.…
Pharmacies could receive 275,000 extra minor ailments service referrals annually Additional symptoms have been included for referral to the 'Community pharmacist consultation service' after a review of the NHS 111 referral pathway.…
Quarter of referrals under national hospital discharge service from just one area Exclusive: More than a quarter of the 63,109 referrals within the first nine months of the discharge medicine service were sent from NHS trusts in the Cheshire and Merseyside Sustainability and Transformation Partnership area.…
Community pharmacies administer 22 million COVID-19 vaccines in a year A total of 1,500 pharmacy-led vaccination sites have delivered nearly 20% of all COVID-19 vaccinations since the programme began.…
Pharmacies to offer point-of-care test and treatment for acute cough Under a patient group direction, community pharmacies in Liverpool will be able to supply doxycycline to eligible patients referred through the 'Community pharmacist consultation service'.…
Health minister promises to extend ‘zero tolerance’ measures to community pharmacy after reports of abuse Shortages of lateral flow tests have led to verbal abuse of pharmacy staff, pharmacy bodies have said.…
Pharmacies promised millions more COVID-19 lateral flow tests per week Amid a surge in demand for lateral flow tests, the government has said it plans to give community pharmacies access to 2.5 million more each week for the rest of January 2022.…
Hospital pharmacy staff absences soar as COVID-19 cases rise Exclusive: NHS trust leaders have warned that pharmacy teams are stretched too thin, with some services facing withdrawal if staffing issues continue.…
